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NAIDOC Week (June 3-10): Get Up! Stand Up! Show Up!

Our Indigenous peoples have a proud history of getting up, standing up, and showing up, from the frontier wars and the earliest resistance fighters to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities fighting for change today. So, it makes sense that the theme of this NAIDOC Week (June 3-10) is Get Up! Stand Up! Show Up!

As an organisation providing refuge for women and children escaping family violence, we are constantly inspired by the resilience and bravery of the women who stay with us. Despite leaving with often only the clothes on their back and a handful of possessions; despite enduring sometimes years of abuse; these amazing women display a strength and commitment to building a safe and secure home for their children, despite overwhelming disadvantage.

The statistics tell us that Indigenous women are disproportionately subject to this disadvantage.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women are more than three times more likely to experience violence than non-Aboriginal women. They are 34 times more likely to be hospitalised because of family violence, and 11 times more likely to die from the assault.

Three in five Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women have experienced physical or sexual violence by a male intimate partner.

This NAIDOC Week, when we consider what Get Up! Stand Up! Show Up! means to us as an organisation, we’re reaffirming our commitment to standing up for Indigenous women escaping violence. We recognise that the experiences of Indigenous women are unique and will continue our journey to cultural safety in our support of them.

We will continue to agitate for and support institutional, structural, collaborative, and cooperative reforms as an organisation and across the sector.

This NAIDOC Week we will also celebrate the many incredible Indigenous women who have stayed in our refuges over the decades and the Indigenous women working within the sector—they have been the heroes and champions of change and upholding basic human rights.

Find out what NAIDOC Week events are happening across the country and share your own.